The Use of Brands in Food Marketing - Results from a Survey of Danish Food Industry Firms

The paper tests a number of hypotheses concerning branding behaviour of the food industry found in the literature. Based on a survey of 109 Danish food industry firms conducted in 2004, three aspects of branding strategies are analysed, i) the number of brands owned by the firm, ii) the number of brands introduced by the firm during the past year and iii) the percentage of sales obtained from production under private labels. Firms' branding behaviour is related to structural variables including firm size, degree of vertical integration, value added as well as firms' views on food chain organisation and competitiveness.